The Internet had existed for years before an English computer scientist in 1989 devised an "information management" system that would eventually allow nearly anyone to display and view pages hosted on computers around the world — the World Wide Web.

Although few people, including most journalists, realized it at the time, the Web would turn the Internet from "a geeky data-transfer system embraced by specialists and a small number of enthusiasts into a mass-adopted technology easily used by hundreds of millions around the world," according to the Pew Research Center's "The Web at 25," published this year.

The technological revolution threatened newspapers and their way of business while, at the same time, providing a path to the future for reaching a new generation of readers.

That was a perspective, however, that few in the newsroom had in the early 1990s.

The Courant's first steps into cyberspace came not through the Web but on a computer-based bulletin board. In 1994, Courant engineer Tom Cichowicz and technology writer John M. Moran — both interested in ways to connect with readers beyond the newspaper — persuaded managers to create a bulletin board.

As early as the late 1980s, The Courant had tried to reach readers in alternative ways, starting with "FaxPaper," a compilation of news briefs faxed to customers each afternoon.

Next came the rudimentary online bulletin board — Courant Source Online — made possible with computers and telephone lines accessed through dial-up modems. The bulletin board offered news and information services, including local discussion forums and archived stories from the paper. The newspaper did its part to promote the bulletin board through its weekly technology section, "Enter."

"In the beginning, it was a limited number of people who" understood and had the technology, Cichowicz said.

In Connecticut, these early experiments were barely noticed against a backdrop of a deep economic malaise. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, New England slogged through a devastating recession in which housing values plummeted and were slow to rebound; overly exuberant commercial real estate lending toppled venerable lenders, including Connecticut Bank and Trust Co.; and corporations cut back broadly, leading to layoffs.

The sluggish economy, coupled with rising newsprint costs and troubles at The Courant's parent, Times Mirror, led a new Times Mirror CEO to order cutbacks at all its properties. At The Courant, where the newsroom staff had reached an all-time high of about 400, 45 editors and reporters took buyout offers in 1995. Another 143 employees throughout the company took the buyout, as well.

"You can count on change as a constant feature in the future," warned Mike Waller, who had become the newspaper's publisher in 1994, promoting David S. Barrett to editor.

That same year, with the influence of the Web growing, a news website — courant.com — debuted. The website was populated largely by stories that had already appeared in the paper, reflecting the prejudices of many news executives who didn't see its role in the news publishing business. Nobody wanted to "scoop" themselves.

In 1997, Waller headed to Baltimore to take over as publisher of The Sun. He was replaced by general manager and senior vice president Marty Petty, the first female publisher to lead The Courant in 218 years, since Hannah B. Watson in 1777-78. One of Petty's first moves was to bring in a new editor — Brian Toolan, the managing editor of the tabloid-format Philadelphia Daily News.

Because he had worked for a tabloid, Toolan exhorted the newsroom to be consistently compelling. He wanted to bring a daily vibrancy and urgency to The Courant, which, like most newspapers, he found complacent at times.

Under Toolan, The Courant focused more attention on courant.com, offering stories from the daily paper as well as top stories from some weekly sections. Husky Hardcores was focused on UConn basketball. There also were Web-only columns on cooking, goings-on at the Capitol and life in the "Land of Steady Habits.

The end of the 1990s brought the rise of commerce on the Web, and increasingly sophisticated search engines, including Altavista and Yahoo. They soon would be dwarfed by Google.

Online marketplaces, including craigslist, quickly challenged the dominance of The Courant, and the newspaper industry as a whole, in classified advertising by offering free ads. Although some at The Courant saw the merits of connecting with readers in multiple ways, they were in the minority, and on the corporate level Times Mirror passed on a chance to buy AuctionWeb, later renamed eBay.

Despite its growing prominence, little of the Internet's power or eventual sweep was discussed inside the newsroom, which remained primarily focused on chasing news — and at the speed wanted by its new editor.

It was March 6, 1998, a Friday morning, when The Courant's photo lab director heard a police car whiz by his Newington home, turned on his police scanner and immediately alerted the newsroom that something serious was going on at the Connecticut Lottery headquarters a mile away. More than 30 journalists were mobilized — the tools of the time included beepers and some cellphones — as sketchy details emerged that a troubled employee had gone on a shooting rampage, killing four of the state's top lottery officials before killing himself.

The scope of the next-day coverage — 13 stories and photographs, two diagrams, two chronologies and poignant profiles of the victims — won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage, the newspaper's second Pulitzer Prize in seven years. The Courant had earned journalism's most prestigious prize again.

While Toolan focused on the newsroom, Petty focused on community involvement.

"She was very aware of what it meant to be a good corporate citizen, and especially what the role of a good newspaper should be as an engine of positive change in the community," said then-deputy publisher Lou Golden.

Petty became intensely involved in such civic collaborations as the MetroHartford Millennium project, a multipronged effort to revitalize Hartford, and Community Conversations on Race, a series of discussions aimed at solving social problems. She established annual Tapestry Awards that recognized individuals or organizations for promoting diversity. In October 1998, she arranged with the secretary of the state's office to insert official voter registration forms in The Courant. Petty also hosted quarterly Key Issues Forums that tackled a range of issues, including charter reform, economic development and mental illness.

The Courant performed well financially under her stewardship, but there were signs of rocky financial times to come. Spending restraints became more commonplace. And in November 1998, Petty notified employees that the company was ending the annual bonus, a profit-sharing arrangement that dated to 1947.

"It appears that the years ahead will be very challenging for our business," Petty wrote in a note to the staff.

Developments taking place at The Courant's West Coast parent company would lead to a dramatic change at The Courant as well. A series of missteps and embarrassments led Times Mirror to seriously consider a merger with the Chicago-based Tribune Co. in January 2000. Proponents thought that there was potential in the "convergence" of newspaper, Internet and television properties in the same markets. The cities with overlapping properties included Los Angeles, New York and Hartford, where The Courant could partner with Tribune-owned WTIC, Channel 61, a Fox affiliate. They banked on the Federal Communications Commission easing cross-ownership restrictions.

Within two months, a deal was struck. That March, Jack Fuller, president of Tribune's publishing division, visited Hartford to assure the newsroom staff that "the last thing Tribune wants to do is screw up great papers." He said he expected only gradual changes at The Courant and no cuts in staffing or news coverage.

In July 2000, Petty announced that she was leaving The Courant for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, and the newsroom braced for more change. The new publisher — the first under Tribune — was Jack W. Davis Jr.